Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 14 (IANS) Fewer personal computers were sold in India last fiscal, with the sale of notebooks dipping 17 percent and desktops down four percent, according to the hardware industry’s representative body.
Sales of computers, including notebooks and netbooks, declined 7 percent to 6.79 million units from 7.34 million units in 2007-08, the Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT) said here on Tuesday.

According to MAIT, the slowdown impacted the notebook segment the most, which saw sales decreasing 17 percent in 2008-09 as compared to an increase of 114 percent the previous fiscal.

Desktop sales slipped 4 percent from 5.52 million in 2007-08 to 5.27 million in 2008-09.

“The industry expects 7-8 percent growth this year. Consumer sentiment was subdued due to uncertainty in the economy in 2008-09,” said MAIT executive director Vinnie Mehta.

“However, we expect sales to pick up this year,” Mehta told reporters while releasing the annual report on the hardware industry’s performance last fiscal.

According to him, desktop sales would grow by 2 percent and that of notebooks by 25 percent.

The performance in the October-December quarter has been the worst in 2008-09 with sales dipping to 1.4 million.

The report, however, said sales picked up in the quarter ending March 2009 to touch 1.66 million.

“Although the sales growth in both the enterprises and the households headed southwards, the overall consumption in the PC market was led by telecom, banking and financial service sectors, education and the e-governance initiatives of the union and the state governments,” the report said.

“The year also witnessed deviations from the traditional downward trend in pricing for IT products as the dollar continued to be significantly strong compared to the rupee. This was mitigated, to an extent, by price drops due to technology reasons and also due to intense competition.”

The slowdown had an impact server sales, which declined 2 percent.

Sales in Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad, the key centres of the IT and ITeS (IT enabled service) sector, declined a whopping 78 percent, the report said.

At the same time, internet users in the country increased to 8.6 million in 2008-09 compared to 7.2 million in the previous year.

Commenting on the national budget, MAIT president S.S. Raman: “Stability in the rate of excise duty at 8 percent for all IT products and components augurs well for the IT industry.”

MAIT has set for itself an ambitious target of 500 million internet users, 100 million broadband connection and 100 million connected devices by 2012.

“This calls for strengthening of the national IT infrastructure along with the physical infrastructure on a priority basis,” said MAIT vice president Ravi Swaminathan.

“We need an early rollout of 3G and Wi-Max networks. These will not only enable consumption of devices but will also create a new economic paradigm through various applications, services and other avenues created through network-multiplier effect.”